It’s not often you get two double bass players together and even less often do they record an album. So it’s pretty special that Christian McBride and Edgar Meyer, two astoundingly good double bass players, have just made an album together. The album will be released in late March, but they have let
‘Tis Robbie Burns Day today, in honour of the heartfelt and cheeky Scottish poet and songwriter from the 18th century. He was a prolific writer and collector of songs who published well and thus left us with a substantial œuvre – the Complete Works of Robert Burns is 12 volumes. It has been
I love the power of music to set the tone for the day. I listen to music in the shower (a little habit picked up in a share house in Brunswick in the late 1990s) and this morning’s choice was Peggy Lee’s Walking Happy, recorded in 1967. It starts simply with a walking
What a treat to find the original manuscript of something centuries old at the tap of a button. I’ve been learning an old French drinking song – Chanson à Boire – and discovered today that it was published in 1615 by Gabriel Bataille. A little more digging down the rabbit hole of the
I was blown away by the music of Argentinian legend Astor Piazzolla at a concert in 2012 by French accordionist Richard Galliano. He was joined by the Piazzolla Forever Septet and it was an incredible concert, like a fire on stage. With all the depth and variety of the
My musical lineage has some rather distinguished names in it and makes me feel I’m carrying a certain responsibility to keep playing. If I trace back the teachers, it arrives with J.S. Bach. He taught his son, C.P.E. Bach, who taught Haydn. Haydn taught Beethoven, who in turn taught Czerny. He taught Parratt
Opium fuelled orchestral music at it’s finest! Un Bal from Berlioz’ Symphonie Fantastique is one of my favourite pieces of all time. It is pure escapism to turn it up and wallow in the decadent romanticism of 1830. As Bernstein said, “Berlioz tells it like it is. You take a trip, you wind up
Spring is on the verge of bursting forth, the sun is shining and that to me is walking weather. ‘Walking Happy’ is the perfect song to put a spring in one’s step, maybe even a little skip. Here’s a very cheesy but highly entertaining version by Cissy King & Bobby Burgess. They’ve got
Bach and jazz, I hear you say, what do they have in common? Well, J.S. Bach was the master improviser and innovator when it came to music. Had been around in the 20th century he surely would have been a jazz star, doing all the amazing harmonic and melodic things that make him
I love “Alice in Wonderland”t by Sammy Fain, written in 1951. Sammy gave us lots of other great songs, including “Secret Love” and “I’ll Be Seeing You”. I haven’t sung this song for a long time, so it was lovely to give it a whirl upon request at tonight’s gig.
The Bill Evans trio made a
